The Dinner Party
by Triforce90
Summary: Link goes to a party at the castle, but once he gets there, he has a weird feeling. Nobody else but him can see the stack of sponge cakes in the corner... This is what happens when I try to write Drama fics! Read if you dare... I can't do this for beans..


It had been 15 year since the fall of Ganondorf, and Hyrule had regained its composure. Once the ReDeads had vanished from the Market, the people who had survived the tyranny of Ganondorf immediately set to work on rebuilding it. The torn down awnings had been replaced, as well as buildings and shop boutiques.

As soon as the Market was complete, they set off to repair any damage that had been taken upon the Temple of Time. The grime was washed from the windows and bricks, and the roof was replaced with a new one. Much more respect was taken upon the Temple now, for it had been considered "sacred" since the Hero that destroyed Ganondorf had used it as his headquarters.

In the meanwhile, volunteers also rebuilt Hyrule Castle. They made sure that it was just the same as the old one, with no exceptions. Pretty soon, due to the mass volunteer work, the castle, and all of the Hyrule City itself, was restored to its former glory.

In the east of Hyrule, the Deku Tree sprout was no longer a sprout, and was about the same size as the former Great Deku Tree. The latter had rotted completely and became one with the soil, fulfilling its life's duty: to pass away and become part of the earth.

Saria had summoned the Kokiri to help her rebuild to Forest Temple, and soon it was as good as new. The staircase was rebuilt, and there was no longer a musky, eerie feeling when you walked inside.

Speaking of the forest, Link had returned safely from his voyage and continued to live the life he once knew. He continued to visit all of his friends outside of the forest, but every now and then he would just feel like sitting in his small house and thinking. He would think about the time when he had to save Ruto from the Water Temple. How he had to fight the phantom monster that haunted the Shadow Temple. They were certainly not the best of times, but now, he had to admit, he missed doing it.

He missed ending all evil over a certain part of the land. How Zora's Domain could return to normal, all because of HIM. How the forest ridded all evil that had haunted the woods, all because of HIM. How Death Mountain soon became as still as it was before, all because of . . . well, him.

He kept thinking to himself, "What would Hyrule have done if I had never fulfilled Princess Zelda's request? What would've happened then?" His thoughts were soon interrupted when Saria came into his house.

"Link! It's so good to see you!" she said, greeting her with her usual warm smile.

"Hey Saria," Link said, waving.

"Why are you sitting over there all alone?" she asked. Her friendly smiled soon turned into a sad frown as she walked over to sit on his bed next to him.

"I've been thinking about my adventures along time ago. I really miss being a hero again. Saving people felt so . . . good!"

"Aw," Saria said with sympathy. "I don't know if it's that, Link. I think you're just bored!"

"What do mean?" Link asked confusedly.

"Well, look at you! That look in your eye, it's all cloudy and hazy!" Saria said, laughing a bit. "I know something that would excite you!"

"What?"

"This!" Saria reached into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. She then handed it to Link.

This is what it said . . .

_Dear Receiver,_

_You have been invited to a dinner party! Today is the 15th anniversary when Link, the Hero of Time, defeated Ganondorf, the King of Evil. Please be at the new Hyrule Castle at 6:00 on August 20. Hope to see you there!_

_Sincerely Yours,_

_Princess Zelda of Hyrule_

"A dinner party, huh?" Link said, handing the paper back to Saria.

"Yeah! And today is August 20, so are you going to come or not?"

"I guess I'll go. Besides, I need something to get me out of the house."

"Great! I'll see you there!" And with that, Saria ran out of Link's house to get ready for the party.

Link sighed. "Guess I might as well get ready, too."

5 hours later, Link arrived at Hyrule Castle. It was exactly the same as the first time he had ever seen it. Every detail was exactly the same.

Link hopped off his faithful steed, Epona, and walked up to the front gate. A couple of guards were standing there, guarding the entrance to the castle and letting guests come and go. Link said hello, the guards responded, and slowly, they opened the drawbridge.

Link followed the signs that led to the Ball Room, and once there, he stood in awe at its beauty. Glistening chandeliers hanged from the ceiling, with what looked like thousands upon thousands of people dancing and generally having a good time. Link looked up and down the long dinner tables, each bearing some kind of elegant food or desert of some-sort. What a delightful party!

Link walked around until he saw the familiar face of Princess Ruto, the Sage of Water. Link waved hello and she waved back. Princess Ruto had always had a love interest in Link, but she realized at once that as a Sage, she had no time for romance. Ruto was a bit disappointed at first, but soon learned to live with it. After all, it was either the salvation of Hyrule or a man that she had known for a long time. She quickly chose the former.

Link continued to walk around and found Impa, the Sheikah woman and the Sage of Shadow. Link had also known Impa for a long time and had gotten to know her pretty well; almost as well as Princess Zelda knew her.

A pair of hands snuck up from behind and covered Link's eyes.

"Guess who," came the sly yet caring voice of a woman.

"Nice try, Nabooru!" Link said, smiling. The hands uncovered his eyes and he turned around, seeing his other long-time friend standing there.

"You're just getting too good, Kid!" Nabooru said, slapping his shoulder. "The little punk I knew 22 years ago would have NEVER been able to guess it was me!"

"Well come on, Nab! You've already done that too me at least once before!"

"True . . ." Nabooru said, frowning a bit. "Oh well! Old habits, I guess."

Link nodded. Soon, Saria came up to them, looking as though she were in a hurry.

"Come on, Nab!" said the Sage of Forest. "We have to hurry! It's time to address our regions of Hyrule!"

Nabooru slapped her forehead. "UGH! How could I forget?!? Gotta go, Kid. See ya." Nabooru and Saria ran off.

Once again all by himself, Link wondered what to do next. Apparently there was going to be some kind of address to the nation, so that might have been interesting. But what he really thought was interesting was the tall pile of sponge cakes that were sitting on one of the many desert tables.

But it was . . . unusual. Link looked at all the other desert tables, seeing that each table had at least five different deserts on top. However, all alone in the corner of the Ball Room, sat a lone table with a lone desert on top. How strange it was, seeing so many delicious looking morsels, all alone in a huge room. Perhaps if he just tried one . . .

But what if they were there for a reason? What if they were separated from the other deserts because they were going to be used to feed the poor? Link shook out the thought and made his way over to the lone table.

Once there, he grabbed one of the sponge cakes. It felt soft . . . very soft. Soft meant it was moist, and moist meant it was good. He brought the cake to his mouth and took a bite, and it all hit him like a hammer to the head.

It was like taking a bite into a block of salt, like taking a bite into the flesh of a rotten steak. It wasn't sour, salty, or bitter. It was just a taste that was too awful to describe. Spitting the large chunk of cake out of his mouth, Link looked for something to get the taste out.

Spotting a large bowl of punch, Link quickly scooped a cup full and drank it without haste. The punch tasted exactly like the sponge cake, and he spit that out also. Looking for something normal to drink, he searched the room.

He managed to find a carpenter that he had saved from the Gerudo's Fortress 15 years ago, and luckily he had a pocket full of breath mints. Link quickly took 4 of the cinnamon flavor. The mints burned his tongue, but he didn't care. Just as long as it got that awful taste out of his mouth . . .

"Hey, by the way," the carpenter said. "Have you tried some of that punch? It's really good!" And with that, he walked off.

He just walked off! Something wasn't right at this party. Either he was loosing his sense of taste or the carpenter guy was just crazy. He decided to ask someone. He went up to Ingo, which he saw nearby, and asked him about the sponge cakes and what he thought of them.

"Sponge cakes?" Ingo replied, confused. "There aren't any sponge cakes here . . ."

"What? But, there's a lonely table in the corner, and all it has is a plate with sponge cakes on it!"

Ingo looked over to the corner Link was pointing to, and Link looked also. Sure enough, the sponge cakes were there, just like he had remembered.

"Kid, there aren't any sponge cakes there," said Ingo. "Quit pulling my leg! I'm hear to have a good time, not to be joked around by you!"

"Wait Ingo! You don't understand! I . . ." but Ingo had already left. Left, just like the other guy. Link looked back to the sponge cake corner, and they were still there. Just there.

Link walked back over to the sponge cakes and took a look at them. They looked like normal sponge cakes, but there was something else. The color, the smell . . . something had to be wrong!

Then he felt something. It felt like a small stream of wind, coming from the cakes. Link lowered his head to take a look at the porous cake. To his surprise, one of the pours was getting bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller, bigger and smaller . . .

Just like it was breathing . . .

Link grabbed one of the cakes and dug his fingers into it. Sure enough, there was a sharp squeal, as if the cake was in pain. Link dropped the cake to the ground and watched it twitch.

People stopped dancing, looking at the kid standing in a corner, staring at the floor. All of the sudden, he lifted his foot and stomped it on the ground. A shill sound echoed throughout the Ball Room.

Then, it happened. In the eyes of everyone else, tables were being knocked over by an invisible force. People fell to the ground, screaming in pain, having hair pulled and eyebrows plucked, again by an invisible force. People began to scream and panic, wondering what the force was that was causing all of this mayhem.

But in the eyes of Link, the force was the sponge cake.

Link pulled out a knife from his pocket and ran towards a sponge cake nearby. Stabbing the knife deep into the cake, he watched as the cake lied motionless. He began to run around the room, picking cakes off of people and stabbing them the same way.

It sounds crazy now, but it would have been frightening if you were there.

Link then felt a wet feeling though his boots. Looking down, he saw the red punch that was just as disgusting as the cakes. However, there seemed to be more punch than there was before, as an endless flow of punch flowed from the bowl.

If it continued to flow and there was nothing to stop it, the Ball Room would be flooded to the ceiling, and people would die . . .

Link began to try to lead people out of the room, but the attacking sponge cakes made it difficult to lead people. Then, he saw the door that led to the outside of the castle. If he could open that door, the Ball Room would take longer to flood, and maybe he could get people out by then.

Link waded his way through the knee-deep punch, trying to deafen out the sounds of drowning people. Link reached the doors, tried to open, but to no avail.

The doors had been locked!

"LINK! HELP ME!" said the shill voice from far away.

The voice of Saria . . .

Link looked around quickly to find the small girl, but because of the punch, it was hard to see. The punch was probably already too high for her head to stay above the surface . . .

It was then she saw Ruto, swimming though the punch and picking up drowning people whose airless bodies were being held onto the floor. She was picking them up and bringing them to the surface. He knew that as long as Ruto was there, everything would be OK.

Link sat, wondering what to do. He couldn't just watch the people drown! The people he had worked so hard to save couldn't just die like this!

Link began reminiscing about his adventures. When he left the Kokiri Forest, when he met Princess Zelda for the first time, when he went to Lon-Lon Ranch and met Malon . . .

Wait a minute . . . Where was Malon?

Link never recalled seeing the redhead here before. She was one of the only redheads in the country, besides the Gerudo. The only Gerudo here was Nabooru.

Then Malon must be safe! But why did she never come? Ingo was here . . . why didn't she just come with him?

It was then that Link felt a strong hand on his shoulder. He turned around to see Nabooru, eyes very serious.

"Link! You've got to warp out of here!"

"Why? I can't just leave!"

"You must! Find the girl with the red hair, and bring an army with you!"

"Nab, what do you . . ." And with that, Link disappeared with a flash of orange light.

Link soon found himself lying in the openness that was Hyrule Field. Nabooru had told him to find the girl with the red hair. Obviously Malon!

Link summoned his horse, Epona, and leapt upon her back. And as soon as he leapt on her, he said one word into the horse's ear . . .

"Malon . . ."

And with that, Epona reared and ran off toward the direction of Lon-Lon Ranch.

Once there, it didn't take long to find Malon. She was standing in the middle of the ranch, singing her song in her enchanting voice. Link hopped off Epona and ran over to Malon.

"Hi Link!" said Malon, looking towards him. "What's wrong? You look . . . worried . . ."

"Malon! Why didn't you come to the party?"

"I . . . don't know, Link. Something just told me inside that I shouldn't go. Like something was going to happen . . ."

"Something has happened! I know it may sound ridiculous, but I need to take you to the castle!"

"Why?"

"The party has had an attack, but there is no time to explain! Quick! I'm supposed to bring you and an army to the castle!"

"Army? But, where will you get an army?"

"I don't know . . ." Link said. Where was he going to get an army?

Then, Link noticed the many cows standing in the fields of Lon-Lon Ranch. Enough cows for an army . . .

Zelda tried her best to keep herself from going under the flowing punch. The punch was now about 3 feet from the ceiling, and she was having to hold onto one of the chandeliers to stay up. She looked down at all of the people how who had drowned . . .

Then she noticed Darunia, who was curled up into a ball, hoping that rolling up would keep him alive. Ruto was on the floor with him, holding her hand over his mouth. She was keeping him alive.

Zelda prayed that all of this would end soon. Hear she was, about to drown, and there was some kind of invisible object pulling on her hair, trying its best to bring her down with all the others who were dead.

Until something happened. A miracle . . .

The doors that led outside of the Ball Room burst open with tremendous force against the punch, releasing all off the punch and all people floating in it out of the Ball Room. The party guests that had survived were moving along with the river of punch, down the castle halls and finally to the outside draw bridge.

What had opened the door? The cows had! And because of the cows massive weight, they were able to withstand the force of the flowing punch and stood their ground.

The sponge cakes, which were still in the room, leapt on to the cows and tried to bring them down. But the cows were too heavy for their fluffy bodies! One by one, the cows either stepped on or ate the rest of the evil cakes.

5000 people had gone to the dinner party, and 3500 had returned. A ceremony was held for those who had lost their lives, and medals of honor were given out to Ruto, Malon, Link, Nabooru, and the whole army of cows.

It wasn't until Link got home to where he understood what this was all about.

The goddesses came to him in a dream, telling him that they knew this would happen all along. They had given him the ability to see the invisible sponge cakes that know one else could see, and deformed his sense of taste so that the punch wouldn't taste normal to him.

He had saved Hyrule again, like he wanted . . .

But he never wanted to do it again, as long as he lived.


End file.
